The Merger (5 page)

“I’ve seen how thorough you are and how organized,” he said, but the flash of her dropping all of her papers on the floor burst into his mind. “I’ve seen you in action.”

“Wow. I didn’t expect that.”

“I’d understand if you wanted to work on the bar and would rather look for a law job. I just thought…”

This time she raised her dainty fingers to his lips and pressed to stop him from talking.

“Thank you. I’d like the opportunity to be your assistant.”

Her eyes locked with his as her fingers slipped from his lips.

Spencer fisted his hands to his side. Every muscle in his body tensed, wanting to pull her in and press his mouth to hers again. She was too vulnerable, which was probably what had her kissing him in the first place. He didn’t need that complication in his life right now.

“Why don’t we go upstairs and I’ll introduce you to Avery.”

Julie stepped back. “Avery?”

“She lives upstairs. Also a cousin,” he said smiling. “You’re going to learn it’s hard to not find a member of my family intertwined in your daily life.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s go meet your cousin.”

Spencer passed by Julie in the hall and walked through the kitchen to another door. He gave it a solid bang with his fist before unlocking it with his key.

The door opened to another staircase that went upstairs, but inside of the house.

“Hey, I’m coming up,” Spencer yelled.

“I’m decent,” a woman’s voice yelled back.

Spencer started up the steps and Julie followed. At the top of the
stairs,
they came out into
a kitchen.
It was femininely decorated in pink and black, which instantly gave it girly charm. There were flowers in a vase and candles lit on the stove. A wine rack was on the counter filled with beautiful bottles of wine.

She couldn’t wait to meet Avery. She had to be some brilliantly beautiful woman with
taste
like this.

As they passed through the kitchen and into the living room, Julie got her first glance at Avery.

Her taste absolutely matched the woman.

She was in the middle of a yoga workout, but even so, Julie’s breath was taken by looking at her.

Slim with long limbs in a warrior pose and long black hair pulled into a silky ponytail on the back of her head—she was stunning.

Avery paused the video and turned toward them. Her skin glowed from the sweat that
slicked
her skin, but it only made her more beautiful.

“As if you need to do that yoga stuff,” Spencer joked.

“I do if I want my wine.” She smiled back with a brilliant set of white, straight, beautiful teeth.

Had Julie not known this was his cousin she’d have been instantly and insanely jealous.

“I wanted to introduce you to your new basement tenant. Julie Jacobson, this is Avery Keller.”

She shifted her eyes to Julie, but didn’t do
the head
to toe scan that most people did to judge another. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand, but…” She wiped them down her thighs.

“It’s okay. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m leaving her here. She has the key. Are you only parking out back?”

“Yeah. Easier for me,” she said.

Spencer turned toward Julie. “You can park in the driveway then. You can pull right up to the door almost.”

“You both have been very generous. I appreciate it.”

“Do you do yoga?” Avery asked Julie.

“I’ve taken a few classes. I’ve never really done much.”

“Well, I’m right here doing it
every day
at eight o’clock. You are more than welcome to come up. I also run in the morning if you’re interested.”

This woman was insane.

“I don’t run, but I might join you for yoga someday.”

“You get settled. I’ll knock tomorrow and we can at least have some wine. Do you drink wine?”

“I do wine.”

“Good. It was nice to meet you.”

Julie hadn’t expected that the beauty would be so gracious, but she found herself falling in love with her.

Spencer turned to lead her back to the stairs.

“Hey, Spence,” Avery shouted after him. “I ordered our cake.”

“Please tell me it’s not pink and black.”

Avery was silent, except for an evil laugh. Spencer just shook his head as he led Julie down the steps back to her new apartment.

“Why is she ordering a cake for you?”

“We share the same birthday. Our family is throwing us a big birthday party dinner. Although, all dinners with my family are big.”

“You were born on the same day.”

“Literally. We’re less than an hour apart.”

“That’s really cool.”

“It is until my birthday cake is covered in pink and black.”

Julie gave a little laugh, even though jealousy ripped right through her. It had been years since she’d had a birthday cake and
a dinner
with her family. Spencer Benson was a lucky man.

When they returned through the door at the bottom of the steps, Spencer locked the door. “It locks from both sides.”

“Good to know.”

“So, are you interested?”

“Very,” she said, though she thought the word came out much too
airy
.

Spencer held out the keys to her and she held open her hand.

“Welcome home, Ms. Jacobson.”

“Thank you, Mr. Benson.” She took the keys from him letting her fingers brush his and looked back up into his smiling eyes. “I guess you’d better be heading home. Don’t you have a date?”

His eyes lost their glimmer. “Right. I have a date.” He looked down at his watch. “Hmm, guess I’d better get going. My two or three hours turned into nearly five.”

“I didn’t mean to take you away from your evening. I should have…”

Spencer pressed his fingers to her lips again. “She’ll understand. I’ll see you on Monday. Eight o’clock. In my office.” He hesitated a moment before dropping his hand.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He walked to the door and disappeared through it.

Julie closed the door and locked it. She turned and looked around the small basement apartment. She smiled. This wasn’t what she’d expected when she’d driven all day and all night heading to Nashville. She wasn’t sure what she’d really expected. All she knew was she needed to get away from her ex-husband and Libby Grayson. She figured she’d done that.

Now she needed to stop thinking about Spencer
Benson
because that was making moving on much harder.

Spencer rubbed his hands over his face as he watched the numbers on the elevator climb. Twelve hours earlier he’d been looking forward to stepping off this elevator where Tiffany would be standing on the other side.

Sometimes she’d be cooking something. Sometimes she’d be stark naked. Tonight he just didn’t know what he was hoping for.

When the elevator reached the
penthouse,
he stepped off and it was quiet. His shoes echoed on the marble floor. He noticed the key he’d given her laying on the kitchen counter.

He walked through to the kitchen. She’d ordered a pizza, which amused him. Tiffany loved pizza and she loved having someone come up
the elevator
to deliver it to her. It had always given her some satisfaction to have someone see her in his place.

He looked around at the pretentiousness of it. Sometimes it surprised him that his own father could have designed it.

The home Spencer was brought up in wasn’t pretentious. It was big and roomy, and sat on acres of land. It wasn’t flashy like the penthouse. The penthouse was for show.

For the past few
years,
he’d enjoyed that. He had
the fancy
car, the fancy house, even the designer suits. But he was never sure it
fit
him.

It fit his cousin Avery, and even she was living in his Aunt Arianna’s old house—with Julie.

Her name rattled in his brain. He didn’t even like the woman—really. He’d spent nearly a half a year cursing her.

But it was different now.

The very moment she began to cry in the elevator it became different. And the moment she’d pressed her lips to his and they’d taken the kiss further than just a crazy, spontaneous kiss—it was all different.

There was a bottle of wine open on the counter. The patio door was open and he heard the unmistakable sound of Tiffany’s laugh. The one with the flirty undertones.

He looked in the pizza box. There were two slices of cheese pizza. Yep, she’d ordered. She was fancy about everything but her pizza.

It was cold enough that he knew she’d ordered it a long time ago. He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer, twisted off the top, and headed out to the patio.

“Oh, Spencer! I thought you gave up on me.” She laughed again. “Have you met your neighbor?”

The man seated at
the small
glass table on his patio stood up. The lights of Nashville were his backdrop. In the
shadows,
he towered over Spencer as he held out his hand for Spencer to shake.

Spencer rearranged the pizza into the hand holding
the beer
and shook the man’s hand.

“Clark Dwyer,” the man said in a deep voice with a British accent.

“Spencer Benson.”

“Beautiful flat you have here. Tiffany was kind enough to invite me up for a
bite
.”

“Was she?” He turned toward her and she was grinning.

“Clark is staying a few floors down in that corporate apartment.”

Spencer nodded. “Right. The telecommunications company out of London.”

Clark nodded. “Correct. Here for a few months setting up the U.S. office.”

Feeling like a third wheel in his own home, Spencer took a bite of the cold pizza.

“I think I’ll go get out of this suit. You two enjoy the view.”

He excused himself and headed down the hallway to his bedroom.

As he pulled his tie from around his neck, he thought of the small basement apartment he’d just set Julie up in. The entire apartment might be as big as the bedroom he was standing in.

The wood paneling that had been painted over and the queen sized bed that took up nearly the whole room made the basement apartment bedroom charming.

His room overlooked Nashville.

Walking to the
window,
he began to unbutton his shirt.

He could see the cars drive up and down Broadway. Perhaps his cousin Clara’s husband was playing tonight in one of the bars that lined the famous street. Perhaps in the bar he’d just opened with his partners.

They made up the popular duo The Wrights, until Clara became pregnant and now Warner was solo. Though he toured with some of the biggest names in the music industry, he still liked to play in the smaller bars where he’d gotten his start.

Somewhere down there, among the streets of Nashville, was his aunt’s theater. They were running The Phantom of the Opera now and it was amazing. She and her husband John had really outdone themselves on producing that one.

The Riverside Building hovered over the skyline. There was some comfort in knowing he could see his office from home and his home from his office. Inevitably though, he turned to look at the outskirts of town and he knew, that on a residential street, not too far away, was the house his aunt owned. Tonight it became Julie’s house—Julie’s home.

He pulled off his shirt and walked toward the enormous mirrored doors of his closet. When he opened it, hangers of neatly hung suit pants and coats met him. He tossed the shirt into the laundry bag for the cleaners, hung up the tie, and began to unbutton his pants.

“Hey sexy.”

He looked up to see Tiffany standing in the doorway. “I’m taking the key. I’m going to ride down with Clark, but I’m coming back up. I want to talk.”

She gave him a little wave before he could tell her he thought he’d like to just go to bed—alone.

Spencer pulled off his shoes, slipped out of his pants, and hung them up. He found an old pair of running shorts and his University of Tennessee shirt, which he put on.

He walked back to the kitchen, took out the last piece of pizza from the box, and warmed it in the microwave before he heard the elevator open up and Tiffany walked through to the kitchen.

“Is that the last piece?” She asked as Spencer took a bite.

“Yes.”

“Will you share it?”

“Are you kidding me? Didn’t you eat?”

She grinned. “I had one piece. I didn’t want to seem like a pig in front of my guest.”

“Oh, that would be horrible.”

She walked over next to him and opened her mouth. He moved the pizza so she could take a bite. “Thank you.”